Optimisation of the quality of care for patients with severe asthma: ASfarMA project.

Abstract

 Severe asthma has an important impact on patients and healthcare resources. Recently, the new specific treatments have defined a new scenario in which person-focused care and specialist multidisciplinary teams are necessary. Our Severe Asthma Unit (SAU) started the ASfarMA project along with an external human-centered design company to understand patients' vision of their illness, treatment, and healthcare experience, and to define the ideal SAU by performing a core group session, in-depth semistructured interviews and co-creation workshop. Herein, a series of tips classified as either 'transformative solutions' or 'quick wins', according to a value versus effort matrix are presented. Successful implementation of the proposed solutions will be valuable for patients and healthcare professionals, optimising patient care and resources. These findings can also be helpful to other SAUs or other humanisation projects involving complex, chronic and multidisciplinary pathologies.